Bangladeshi and US officials are due to meet in Washington this week and discuss regional security challenges, with the South Asian country dealing with an influx of Rohingya fleeing violence in the northern Rakhine state of Myanmar.
Deputy US Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Michael Miller and Bangladesh Director General for the Americas at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abida Islam will chair the talks that begin on October 3. US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat will also take part, report the Voice of America.
"Discussions will focus on regional security challenges as well as on efforts to expand partnerships in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping, defense trade, military cooperation, and counterterrorism, as well as maritime security and territorial defense," the US Embassy in Dhaka said in a statement.
US aid
The US State Department announced that the US was set to provide humanitarian aid worth $32 million to help the Rohingya fleeing torture and persecution in Myanmar, with $28 million going to Bangladesh, and the rest to Myanmar.
The aid package will include food, medical supplies, water, emergency shelter and other support.
Simon Henshaw, acting assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, thanked the Bangladeshi government and people for their "warm response and their strong response" in supporting the Rohingya who have come across the border.
In just over a month, more than half a million Rohingya have fled Myanmar where they face human rights violation and discrimination.
Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar security forces on August 25. Since then, the Myanmar military has carried out a brutal crackdown, burning villages, raping and torturing women, and killing others as they fled.
Myanmar's de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi has come under immense international pressure, for failing to acknowledge the brutality of what its army is doing, and for not speaking out strongly against what she just merely tagged as human rights violation.
